Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Without a doubt. I would have been caught without a doubt.
There's no question about it. Because the more you do it,
the more money you make, the more stupid decisions you make.
But you don't see that when you're in that frame
of mind. I wasn't thinking straight enough at the time.
If I look back on it now, I guess I
could question it. And it has been something that I've thought.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
About from iHeartRadio and doghouse pictures. This is shock incarceration.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm Jeff Keating.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Mark and Liz divorced about a year before he began
the shock incarceration program at the Lakeview Correctional Facility. He
needed money to repay debts that were in his name,
more money than his job was bringing in.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I just looked at it as Okay, I have a
clean slate. I can somewhat start my life all over.
I think the ultimate money thought process was could I
somehow figure out how much is still owed on these
loans and what can we do to pay it off?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
My goal?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Hey, if I get to twenty thousand, let's put it
towards the loan. Yeah, that was kind of what I
was thinking of. I mean, there was a lot of
different thought processes going behind it. But at the end
of the day, the goal was to pay these fucking
loans off and clear my name. And that's when I
got into doing some bad things. I worked six thirty
in the morning till six thirty at night. I'd get
(01:53):
home from work, and as a single guy, you want
to get out, you want to meet women. You never
know what's going to happen. The bar legends, actually it
was the Naughty Monkey. At that point was walking distance
to my condo, so I didn't even drive.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Mark needed friends people around him for support through these
tough times.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Rob kinniebo is a friend that Mark met when he
was living in Harriman.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I believe Rob has been unbelievable to me as a friend.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
The first time I met Mark Lombardo, he got my
girlfriend's phone number and he was hitting on her at
a pub and my girlfriend at the time was a
little toasty. At two o'clock in the morning, we're driving
out of there, I'm straight she's passed out and the
phone starts ringing, so I thought, maybe it's one of
her kids, or I should pick up the phone.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
I pick it up.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I said, Hello, it's smart Lombardo and I said, you know, man,
we just met you, like.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
A couple hours ago. What the fuck? He goes, Oh,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
And we hung up and we went back the next
week and he was there and apologized. Then we had
a beer together when we hit it off, and he's
very likable. We started having a fun relationship. I had
a big house two dizebos, a tiki bar pool, and
we started having parties there and they'd be all niners
and we call them the Lombaughtle four hundred, and you'd
(03:15):
seem at a different establishment. He'd be dancing with three
girls at the time making out with him, and I
always questioned him about he's sleep with you in less
than three hours.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
So Mark is a fun dude.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Mark also made new friends when playing pool with a
group of locals at the Naughty Monkey.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We had this game that we made up we called
a three ball. You would put three balls on one
side of the pool table and you know, your cue
ball on the other, and you had three shots to
get them all in. And of course there's gambling on
it and people bet. Obviously you'd want to get one
in on the break, if not two, and you would
want to do it in the least amount of shots.
So let's say there is fifteen people playing. The first
(03:55):
person goes, they get into three therein next person goes,
they don't do it in three there. So now let's
say there's six people left that did it in three shots.
Those six people would go again, and then you would
double up the ante again, so now they're Pot's building.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
It was fun and friendly, and we were doing that
weekly and that's how I built up a report would have.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
But Mark's partying began to escalate, and that led to
other drugs.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I was never a heavy beer drinker. The IPA's, none
of that stuff. Bud lighting, Jeger were my choices. Four
or five, maybe six shots that I had access to
cocaine at the local bar that I hung out at,
people were always there doing it. From the beginning of using,
I was dabbling. I was buying a fifty dollars bag,
which essentially is a gram, and that would last me
(04:44):
a day or two. You know, I wasn't getting too
crazy with it.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
As he dabbled in it, he'd sell to his friends
and then his friends would just share it right then
and there so he wasn't bulking up the whole cost.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I was just having a little bit of a taste
to be socially involved with the rest of the people
that were doing it, and I really enjoyed having that high.
I certainly upped mi ani, if you will. I wanted
to find out what it was about, who's the right
person to get it? From what's good what's bad? There
was different people that had it, and that's when I
really started using to get the night started. I would
(05:20):
call or text a couple of my buddies and say, Hey,
you guys want to do a few appetizers. Fred just
stopped over. Why don't you come over. We'll do an
appetizer two before we go to the bar. They would
come over. We would do two or three lines each,
have a couple of beers, maybe a shot of jack,
and then walk down to the bar. That was essentially
the pregame routine for a couple of months. I was
(05:42):
doing it, really liking it, as I think anybody would
in that scene. And then I basically said, well.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah, at that point, I think he was a little
bit out of control, you know, with everything that was
going on with his life, and I don't think anything
I said.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
There was really no getting to him at that point.
You know what I mean? Will you do it? The
more you're not listening to nobody.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I was using a little bit more than I should have,
and when it came to every week having to buy it,
having to buy it, having to buy it. When we
were playing the three ball game down there, we always
referred to it as Fred. Has anybody seen Fred? Anybody
talked to Fred lately?
Speaker 7 (06:16):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Where's Fred?
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Fred was a name? Yao was a name I think
everybody kind of used. Peruvian night train blow. You know,
everybody had a couple different names for.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
You're having fun and having a good time, and he's
fucking funny, He's hilarious, he's very wetty. He's a smart,
brilliant guy.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Everyone who knew Mark agreed he was intelligent. But it's
difficult to make smart decisions when you take partying to
the level Mark did, And once he got going, he
was out of control.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Friday Saturday night for me, a hard night at party,
and I would do fifteen to twenty beers easily, and
probably two grams of coke. You got to throw in
four or five, maybe six shots of that well, and
you know what, my six thirty to six thirty pm
turned into six thirty am to two am, five days
(07:09):
a week, very little sleep. But you're going down having
a few beers, walking home with a girl. Hey, you
want to come back to my place, We'll party up
a little bit. I have a couple of drinks and
just hang out. It was a no brainer, and there
was multiple to choose from. Maybe I was a little
bit blind to it because you think you're the almighty
when you're doing that. So I personally don't think that
(07:31):
there was a true attitude change. I still did every
day what I needed to do. I got up, I
did my work. I still communicated with my family. I
still saw them on the weekends from time to time,
birthday parties, holidays, whatever the case may be. So they
weren't in front of me on a daily basis to
see a possible change. But nobody confronted me. Nobody ever said,
(07:53):
hey you okay, you don't look good, or are you
all right? What's wrong with your nose? I mean, you're
going and I know because i'd leave parties. You're sniffing,
you're going to the bathroom, you're blowing your fucking nose.
I'm like, are they picking up on it? These are
things I've said to myself. Did they I don't know
if they did. They never questioned it.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Here's Mark's older brother Don.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I was doing my thing.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
I could have been a lot closer to Mark because
there were times I didn't see him for like a month,
you know, like whether it be actually having that breakfast
where we would catch up on a bunch of things.
Mark would never have gotten into a problem that he
was having or anything like that. I wish I knew
what was happening. I would have been.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
There most nights of the week. Mark was partying at
the Naughty Monkey, where he made some new connections.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So Aimon was the guy that hung out at the bar.
His parents actually owned a bar over in Central Valley,
New York, Irish place. But he was a little bit
of a partier and everybody knew that. Everybody. If he
walked in, it was either to buy or he was
selling something. I was buying these little fifty dollars bags,
one hundred dollar bags from. Where can I get some
(09:06):
of this from? I want to buy in larger quantities.
I just wanted larger quantities that high I really enjoyed
having that high. I certainly continued to do bigger lines,
and so from one bag to two bags a weekend,
to an eight ball a night, you know, and sometimes
(09:27):
an eight ball you know, back to back nights on
a Friday and Saturday. And that would just keep you
up for forty eight hours. I mean you would literally
bang them out left and right, and that's no way
to live. You just you feel miserable, and you're quite honestly,
you're useless. You're useless, you can't do anything. My week
of working party was a long week because there was
(09:49):
virtually no sleep. I still went to work. I didn't
miss a day work. I'd say to myself, what are
you doing? If my mother saw me right now, my
father saw me, he get the shit out of me.
Know the negative vibes that you put inside yourself, and
then how do you correct it? Go get a bag
of coke. It's a vicious cycle.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Mark began to spiral out of control. His habit grew
to a couple of eight balls a weekend.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I wanted to get greedy. I wanted to try to
hit a home run. That's where my brain got going.
There was pretty much.
Speaker 8 (10:24):
One idea and one idea only, and it was to
try to to move cocaine. I knew a lot of
people that were into it. I knew a lot of
people that were making money on it. I was able
to get involved and try to, you know, become the
next quick pit, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And I thought, maybe let's give it a shot. Let's
see if this would work. I think everybody sees it,
you read about it, you see it on TV. It's quick,
easy money. And Todd he's a local guy. He was
the guy playing three ball, you know. He was a
local guy that everybody knew.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Todd, like a men, was one of the guys who
made regular appearances at the Naughty Monkey, delivering the goods.
Mark was looking to Moods, so he gets a big
score set up through Todd, thinking he'd be able to
pay off his debts.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Because if you do it right and you chop it
up and you cut it a little bit here, then
you can still make a little bit more money and
then you can have some for yourself. So then I
could essentially sell it, make money, and I would have
my own to play around with. It was very nerve
wrecking the first time I went and picked up cocaine.
I thought, in my head, holy shit, what are you doing.
(11:34):
We weren't driving around the corner. We were driving on
major highways, and it was something I don't know if
I can actually describe. It was that gut feeling you had.
You were constantly looking at rear mirrors. Now, the person
I was with, he does it a lot, Todd. Todd
was the gentleman that was driving. He was doing it
a lot. He was used to it. I didn't want
(11:56):
to get used to it, but I wanted to sell it.
I didn't want to drive and have that shit in
my car. I mean I was very, very nervous looking
in mirrors and every intersection that you got off, you know, oh,
there's a couple with it. It's I think it's a
natural feeling or vibe that goes through your body. But
nerve wrecking to say list. But I never looked at
myself as Mark the dealer was more of Mark the
(12:18):
guy that can sell you a little bit of cocaine.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
To feed his habit. Mark needed to find a bigger
supplier for that. He went on his first big score.
He and Todd drove to meet the guy named Flacco.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
This is the first time for me. This guy's been
doing it a bunch of times. Essentially, he was bringing
me there to introduce me a flaka. We got there
and we got out and we hearked right next to him.
We were in a pickup truck. He was in this
I don't know, all little beat up on the civic
or whatever four doors a d in. It was in
a Grand Union parking lot, and obviously he knew the guy.
(13:09):
He had asked us to get in the car. He
does that specifically, he wants to make sure nobody's following
you and nobody's watching in the parking lot. So we
got in his car and we just drove. He was
your typical young, skinny drug dealing guy. I mean, I
don't if you want to put a stereotype on somebody,
he had it. He absolutely had it. He was a
(13:29):
little creepy looking.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
After a couple of lefts and rights on back roads.
Flacco was making sure nobody was following them.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
When we were driving around. It was minimal conversation. I
personally didn't say anything. I was sitting in the back.
Todd's evidently known this guy for a while. Those basic questions,
how you been what's new type kind of thing. Flaco
was focused on what he needed to be focused on.
He didn't need any distres so it was like quick,
one word answers. He was looking around and driving, making
(14:04):
his turns, very very minimal conversation. Music playing in the car,
not too loud, and I'm just sitting in the back
and was I nervous? Hell, yeah, I was nervous. I
was second guessing myself, you know, is this really what
the fuck I want to be doing? Like where are you?
What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
You know?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
But at the end of the day, we knew what
we were on a mission for and we did it.
But it was like the sweaty palms.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
It was.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I think I was looking around more than anybody because
I also knew what the ramifications could be and certainly
didn't want it to tap in that day.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
One potential ramification could be a multi year sentence in
a maximum security prison.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
When Flaco felt comfortable, he just pulled over on the
side of the road kind of parallel parking where there
was some spots, and we exchanged here and there money drugs.
He handed it over to Todd, gave him the money,
drove us back to Grand Union, got in the car
and we headed back. We were in TODs truck and
(15:08):
he put it in a center console so it was
not on either one of our pockets. He had this
little like I guess, not a hidden compartment. I mean,
clearly it could have been found, but I guess that
was his safe spot. So it wasn't physically on me.
And I smoked cigarettes too, so it was like chain smoke.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I was nervous, so it was like one after another,
just smoking. He was a smoker too, So we drove
an hour and fifteen minutes back to my apartment. The
ride was it was doing the speed limit, it was
doing everything right. It was stopping at stop sides. It
was putting your blinker on everything you possibly could try
to prevent we did. This was light a day. It
(15:44):
wasn't midnight, It wasn't two o'clock in the morning. This
was four or five o'clock in the afternoon. Typical rush hover.
You're blending with anybody. If you're doing the right thing,
nobody's gonna fuck and pull you over.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
How many other drivers were toting an ounce of cocaine
while stuck in rush hour traffic?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It was a huge relief when you get back to
the condough and yes, you absolutely do a lot, and
you do multiple that's exactly what you do. You do
and you get amped up. Obviously we knew we would
turn it and sell it, so yeah, it was a
huge relief. Are your cheers in your buddy with the
beer across the table? All right, you take this way
it out. I'll do these and you get into the
(16:20):
swing of things. So I would take a couple of
grams to the side. That would be mine. It was decent,
it was good stuff. By the way, this was already cut,
all right, it's just the way it is. You're not
going to get pure coke. It's just not happening. I
would take the ounce and I would sit at my
kitchen table, and I did have a scale over here,
and you know the little tiny ziplock bags, little tiny ones,
you buy them at anywhere. So I would take it
(16:41):
and basically you sell a gram at one point zero, right,
but we would do like point eight. It was always
a little less. It was always a little less. And
then I would take B twelve and chop that up
and just mix it up with a card or razor
blade and make it all fine and nice and dandy
beat twelve, which is like a speed type kind of thing.
You're just chopping up. You mix it in there and
(17:03):
you can still sell it and nobody knows the difference.
And then scoop it up into a little bag and
weigh it point seven maybe point eight, depending just how
it looked. Sometimes when you chop it up it's really fine.
You want to maybe leave a couple of little chunks
in there, so to speak, essentially, you would double it.
You're already thinking, hey, let me make some money. You
want to get rid of it as quickly as possible, right,
(17:23):
make some quick phone calls, text message, Hey, just want
to let you know back in town, anybody want to
meet up in the next hour or so. Go down
to the pool hale and come back with zero bags
in my pocket.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And just like that, Mark's dealing cocaine and those default
loans from his twin brother.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
There's still in my name. He would tell me Mark,
things are tough right now. I know you may get
a letter, but just no, I'm gonna keep the payments going.
And I'd literally let everything go. I didn't let it
phaze me. I was tunnel vision with my job. At
the time, I would worried about doing my job and
moving cocaine, so I really didn't care to know where
(18:05):
I was financially. Just about everything I had I pay cash.
The credit cards have been turned over to collection agencies.
They called me and I told them to go fuck themselves.
I said that loan's not for me. I said, my
twin brother's name, you can fucking call him. I don't
even give them opportunities anything. I don't care who you are.
I'm not paying your fucking loan and I hang up.
My credit was shit. My credit was in the four hundreds.
(18:27):
I mean it was nothing, and I was like, am
I going to get there? I don't know, but let's
keep doing it. Then I got more people buying from
me and more people buying from me, and was I
making a million dollars now? But I was making money,
and I was like, all right, the more you do it,
the greedier you get, and the more people I could
bring on and maybe this will be my solution. Oh yeah,
(18:48):
I'm gonna make fifty thousand dollars next month and I'll
just pay off that loan. Okay, cool that we're onto
something here. So I didn't necessarily worry about him taking
care of it. Ultimately, I had to try to do
it in my own hands and do what I could
to get myself out of a hole. And part of
the market was those people were getting it from who
(19:09):
knows who. And I said, listen, let's make it easier.
Everybody get it from me. What are you going to
call all these different people for. I'll get it. I'll
take care of it. We'll get it and just get
it from me. And it was simple. They just knew that, hey,
Mark would be down here and we're going to just
get it from him, and and they could rely on me.
We would get it every week.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
By this point, market built trust, with Flacco now able
to get fronted and ounce at a time.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
It was kind of what they call it on the
arm right. So they give it to you, and you know,
we'll see you next week for the next shipment. And
then when I would get the next one next week,
I would give them the money for the previous week.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
I was, by no means a king fin the furthest
thing from it. This was simply, let's a thousand dollars
worth and turn it into two.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
So you basically doubled it, and the way I looked
at it and said, hey, you know, if I.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Could do this on a weekly basis, I'll get some
cash blug.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
On, you know, and then who knows, maybe down the
road he again, larger amounts, do you get more people involved?
Speaker 7 (20:02):
Obviously that can be a little bit more dangerous.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Shit, I don't have kids, I don't have a wife.
I just have myself and going out and having fun.
So having the ability to walk into a room and
sell coke, it went to my head and there was
empowerment there. It was nice that people they didn't necessarily
maybe like you, but they knew they wanted to be
friends with you because you had what they wanted. And
(20:27):
that became like an instant gratification. Right, Oh, Mark's here, cool,
let me go say hello, let me go buy him
a drink. And a lot of people bought me drinks
because they think I'd give him maybe a bump or
two on the house. And then hey, I never gave
anything for free. Okay, as far as selling bags or
discount that doesn't work in this world. Right, you pay
for what you want.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
His friend Rob shared a different perspective on Mark's lifestyle.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
I never really had him in my mind as a dealer.
A drug dealer would make money. He probably lost more
money than he ever made because he was addicted to
it that point. He was far into it.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Man, it even hurts to hear Mark the dealer because
I never looked at myself that way. But I was
dealing drugs, so technically, yeah, you're a dealer. That's what
I was doing. I guess I wanted to be looked
at Mark the friend that had some extracurricular activities. I mean,
let's face it, that was kind of the way I wanted.
(21:23):
And these were some of my friends and just acquaintances
that I saw on a regular basis that I wanted
them to maybe look at me.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I never wanted anybody to be like, oh, Mark's a
drug dealer. Who wants to be known as a fucking
drug dealer. Nobody, nobody. Maybe some people do, maybe they
want to be the next kingpin. That's not me. It
was never my intention.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
He might not have been a cocaine kingpin, but Mark
was certainly using heavily. By any measure.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
It was ultimately affecting everything, and I knew it and
I saw it.
Speaker 7 (21:56):
But I continued.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Normally, when you go to bed at ten o'clock on
Tuesday night because you have to be at work at
six thirty seven o'clock on Wednesday morning, I'm up till
two three o'clock in the morning doing it, or hanging
out and meeting other people and driving down the road
just to go meet somebody because that's the only client
they can come. And it threw off your schedule, It
threw off your routine, It threw off your way of life.
I would go to one bar on a night and
basically make my week. Everybody knew to go there, everybody
(22:20):
knew to see me. You got degenerates who run out
of it in a couple of days, and then the
calling you on a Sunday night or a Monday or
a Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Rob might have known a little about Mark's party life,
but his family was completely oblivious.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Nobody in my family knows to the extent of the
drugs I was doing. I was doing a lot of cocaine.
The binging in the dark side was not something you
want to play around with. It was the worst part
of it, the worst part of it coming down. I
hated I absolutely hit it, and everybody that does drugs,
or it gets blackout drunk. When you sober up and
(22:56):
you come down, it's a worst feeling in the world,
it really is. How do you want to feel that way?
Nobody does, But yet you do it again. You do
it again because your friends are eggagnon. Or it's a
holiday weekend. Yoh, we gotta go, we gotta go. Let's
let's get going, you know, or it's a birthday. There
was always an excuse, there was always a reason to
start a binge. Always, Yeah, when I came home, it
(23:18):
was because there was nothing left.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
That's because either I did it or I sold it
with that much cocaine. Mark became the man at the
Naughty Monkey.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
As more people know about a Friday and Saturday night
turns into a Tuesday Wednesday because they don't give a
shit because they don't have a job, because they want
to go out and get banged up, and yeah, come
out over. I got one for you, and come over
and you do one with them or two, and then you.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
Get the edge.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Hey, you know what, maybe I'll go out. I'll go
out with you where you're going. You're going down to
the bar, no problem, I'll go out for a little bit.
A little bit turns into four or five six hours
easy if you're partying. I was buying Announced at a time.
I started off with Announce, which would cost me about
back then, it was probably about about nine hundred bucks,
maybe a thousand bucks on it, got rid of it,
went and got another one, brought it back, got rid
(24:07):
of it. I think the most I went through was
probably three ounces in a week. You get greedy when
you see money. The total cash that I remember having
in my room was about fifteen thousand.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I'm up to fifteen thousand, all one hundreds. It kind
of looks cool, right? Can I get it up there?
Can I continue this? Because that dream of a suitcase
full of cash and I'm going to be able to
pay off these loans, and hey, you know what, maybe
even have some extra money to help my brother this
and that. I mean, that's the big grand scheme type
time of thing you think about when you go buy
(24:40):
a lottery ticket. Right, Oh my god, could you imagine
you know what? And you got a better chance to
get instruck by lightning, you know, but you keep doing
it right.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
The parties went on night after night while the loans
were still there. Accruing interest.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I didn't put it towards any of the debt.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
I was still making a decent living.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I was still there working, but my wheels had spinning
and saying, well, how the hell am I going to
get myself out of his debt?
Speaker 7 (25:07):
I called him up and said, listen, what the hell's
going on?
Speaker 6 (25:10):
It's just fucking bullshit. You know it?
Speaker 7 (25:12):
You know it was all you know, a lie.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
It was all eyes.
Speaker 7 (25:16):
It was all eyes.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Mark confronted his brother several times, but never took legal action,
just hoping he would step up A glaring mistake in
a string of poor decisions and miscalculations on Mars parts
and his coke buys. Continued weekly with Flacco In the
parking lot of an A and P.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Todd and I were driving to Amp to meet Flacco again,
routine pickup. We were going to go in and meet
him and do our thing and get on out of there.
And it had been a few times, so we obviously
built the rapport with him. I don't think that there
was any uncertainty on his part, as we were bad guys,
you know. So it was a quick, hopefully in and
out thing, and we pulled in the amp. As we did,
(26:14):
we saw a cop car in the lot, which right away, okay,
we're not going over by his car, and we parked
and we sat there for a couple minutes. And I'm
not sure if Todd called him or text him and
said we're here, but there's a cop over there, you know,
And so we just sat we were not going anywhere
(26:35):
near him, and before you know what, another cop car
pulled in. Another cop car pulled in. I think there
was five cop cars that pulled in, and they made
their way over to his car, and they ripped him
out of that car and gave him the business and
took him away. Todd and I sat there. We looked
at each other. Todd was sweating. I remember seeing sweat
(26:57):
come down his head and I said, holy fuck, Holy
fucking shit, what just happened? What just happened. We sat
there and complete this belief. Like five minutes later, we
were going down. Why the fuck? Why didn't they wait
for somebody to come to the car. They didn't arrest
anybody else. There wasn't another deal going down. It was
just him. Whether they had surveillance in the parking lot
(27:19):
or somebody tipped off the cops Hey, this guy in
this car, it's back. I don't know, but we were
five to ten minutes away from being in handcuffs in
Yonker's police department.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Those ramifications that haunted Mark on his first big score
with Flacco just went down right in front of them,
and he was shook.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
There's a pizza place in the strip mall too. It
was a couple of different stores amp there was a florist.
Said let's go get a slice pizza. We grabbed a
slice of pizza. We sat in the car, we had
the pizza, and again we just kept saying, holy fuck,
holy shit. And then we were worried about are they
going to look at his phone? Because Todd had called
and you know, hey, we're on we'll see it in
an hour. These were things we were asking ourselves, these questions.
(28:04):
I said, all right, we're done. You know that went
through my head. What the fuck are we thinking?
Speaker 4 (28:09):
You know?
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Here here's that thought again?
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
My parents, My god, what would they have thought? Mark
got arrested in Yonkers cocaine. Now, my phone wasn't involved.
I personally never had a direct phone call or text
message or anything.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
We flock.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
It all went through Todd, which made me a little
bit relieved. But at the end of the day, we
clearly could have been the guy's busted that afternoon, and
we just drove home in disbelief. I mean, shaking our heads, wondering,
Oh my god, is he going to get a call?
Is Todd going to get a call? You know, is
somebody going to be looking for him?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
With sweaty palms and thumping hearts, Mark and Todd stared
at the phone like a scene from a movie, waiting
for it to ring. But it never rang, And so
they did what they always did party.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We drove home and and we went right to the bar.
It was almost more of a celebration. You know, Holy shit,
let's go have a beer. We got away, we got lucky,
Holy Christ. You know, let's cheers clink, you know. And
I remember not partying that night. Obviously we didn't have anything.
(29:17):
Now could I have gotten from somebody local if I
really wanted to? There was a part of me that
quite honestly did say to myself, you know now that
this isn't the right thing. Look what happened to that
fucking guy. That's gonna happen to me. That's gonna happen
to you. You know, and I don't think I parted
that whole weekend, quite honestly, I didn't. But next weekend
I did. Yeah, next weekend I did. I really enjoyed
(29:41):
that high. It's the lifestyle. It's that lifestyle that makes
you feel good. I have to tell you, I smoked
pot in my life. I've done hash. Cocaine, to me,
is the best drug. I never did any needle or
any acid or anything like that, but I think cocaine
is a fantastic drug. Still, remember the feeling of being
(30:01):
just so high and you think you can do anything,
and quite honestly, it's a good feeling.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
It is.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Coming down sucks, but being up there feels great. It's
a vicious cycle and that's no way to live. You
do coke for two, three four days, which I have,
and try coming down and waking up and snapping out
of it and getting back to normal. It's the worst
feeling in the world, and you say to yourself, what
the fuck do you put yourself through? Why are you
(30:27):
doing this? There's many nights that you have a few
too many, and you wake up tomorrow and you only
have a headache or you feel tired, not anywhere near
what I've felt. I mean, you don't want to move,
you don't want to move. I mean there's many in mornings,
you wake up, you go throw up, You're dry heaven,
You're crying so much because you're throwing up, your stomach
(30:48):
feels like shit, your diarrhea, you name it. I knew
there would be consequences. I knew I would get in trouble.
I knew I would have an issue with my family,
an issue with work. I knew it was going to
create chaos in my life. But you know that high
one won the battle.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
A single guy with the hookup. The women lined up
for a taste of what he was offering. One of
them was Kathy.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Meaning Kathy was a special time in my life. I
was introduced to her by Todd. Actually, she had been
coming around because she knew Todd partied as well. It
was a matter of days, two or three days before
we started hooking up, pulling around, and then we just
exchanged numbers and her and I hung out all the time.
She was a knockout, fake breasts, cute little blondes, five
(31:41):
foot three, great ass. I mean, she was perfect. She
was absolutely perfect. Single mom, two kids, She had a
very engaged ex husband. Of the kids would rotate one
week with her, one week with him. There was a
couple of times her son, her one son, played soccer.
I liked the game, so I'd go and watch a
game on a weekend she had her kids. She would
say to me, Hey, I have the kids this week.
(32:02):
I'll give you a call next weekend. Okay, see you
next weekend. And that week that they weren't with her,
she was loose cannon. She was out and about. She'd
spend two three days at my house. Hey, do you
mind if I spend three nights the next three nights
I'm kidless. Okay, great, pack a bag, come on over.
You know you can meet and cheeseboard, a couple bottles
of wine and an april and we have a fucking blast.
(32:23):
Whether it was just her and I there or we
started there and then went out, Kathy and I built
a good relationship. We were never truly dating, but we
were known. You know, if we were hanging out so
much that if I went to a bar, people say,
where's Kathy, you know, and vice versa, Hey where's Mark tonight?
I think I'd loved being with her. She was a
really close companion of mine and somebody I considered a
(32:46):
really dear friend. When I was with Kathy, there was
no need to fool around with anybody else. It was
the Triple Crown, it was booze, it was drugs, and
it was a sexy woman.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Since Flacco was busted, Mark he did a new supplier.
Being a young man from New Jersey. He turned to
a friend who knew some people, who knew some people.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
My connection after Flacco got bussed was an old friend,
a friend that I'm going to refrain from using his
name because I am still friends with him today. The
first time I met him was about eighteen nineteen years old,
and we had worked at the same place and never
knew him before. That just started a relationship when we
were working together. And after about a year and a
(33:30):
half two years of working there, he went his way.
His family had some other businesses, and let's face it,
we were getting older, so it was a stepping stone
job for me, you know. And then I got another
job and moved on, but we always stayed in touch
via phone. Then when social media came out, because this
was before Facebook and Instagram and all that, which made
(33:51):
it easier to get in touch with him. You know,
he wasn't afraid to talk about it, quite honestly, which
made me a little leery because normally that's not something
you do. But one thing led to another, and he
was talking about this person and that person. He's a
guy that's got some connections. Okay, he's got some mob ties.
And then we went to a couple places and it
(34:11):
was clearly obvious that there was connections. There was ties
there some of the businesses that are notorious for being
in that industry, as family was in. So it was
definitely obvious, to say the least. I did run the
scenario through my head, and I realized that those are
the people you don't want to get involved with anything
because if it ever goes sour, there's the potential of
(34:34):
not only getting arrested or anything like that, but of
course maybe some type of retaliation, which ultimately could happen.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
With this.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I knew there was a bigger picture from the other
guy that I wanted to stay away from, but you know,
you get desperate. It was a quick, easyphone call. It
was a one quick question, Hey, do you have any
access to some blow? As a matter of fact, he
gave me announce on the arm, and which means for free,
all right, you give me, So he was basically front
and for me, here you go, here's an ounce. I'll
(35:02):
see you next week. For the next one, he had
me locked in, right, I had to see him again
and give him his money. If you're given something on
the arm, obviously you want to make sure that you're
gonna pay that. So on the first one that I
got from him, my thought process was, let me get
my money back first, I'll know I have it. I'll
put it aside. If there's anything left, maybe I'll have
(35:22):
some fun. But don't fuck up, don't be short. I mean, listen,
it's a thousand dollars, which isn't a lot of money
in the drug world. It's not. I mean, it's it's
like it's nothing. But if you start off with somebody
and you want to continue to do the right thing,
and you want to have some credibility and some trust
with these people, you have to do what's right and
pay pay up when it's due, not on your terms.
(35:45):
So it was one hundred percent important for me just
to get that quick brand, get it to him, and
then anything else I had in my pocket was mine.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Mark's habit clouded his judgment and dulled his instincts.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
And then you know, ultimately it was just one after
another after another after another type thing. I saw some
quick cash coming in. I was able to put a
little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here.
Speaker 7 (36:08):
And thought it was kind of a cool thing.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
You know.
Speaker 7 (36:11):
Obviously there's people that'll make one hundred thousand, five hundred
thousand on one tran exactly. That wasn't me.
Speaker 9 (36:30):
Shock Incarceration is a joint production from iHeartRadio and Doghouse Pictures,
produced and hosted by Jeff Keating. Executive producers are Mark Lombardo,
Tommy James, Noel Brown, and Jeff Keaty. Written by Jim Roberts,
Tommy James, Chris Rigotzo and Jeff Keating. Story edited by
Jim Roberts, edit mix and sound design by Lame Krafts
(36:50):
from Herd's Creek Productions. A music composed by Diamond Street Productions,
a company by Tyler Greenwell, Danny Wattanas, Sean Thompson and
Spencer garn Thanks to Trinity Investigative Group and Mark Lombardo's
family and friends who contributed to the podcast